South Carolina man pulls epic April Fools’ hoax. Here’s how he pranked hundreds
April fools! Hundreds of people this week were duped by a recent Facebook post uploaded to a local group.
James Merli of Beaufort, SC uploaded a seemingly fascinating post writing on Monday about a ‘mysterious’ safe found at a construction site along Highway 170. The safe in question was photographed beside an unearthed plot of land near an excavator. It was wrapped in a tarp and covered in dirt. Captioning the post, Merli asked the group members if anyone knew of a good locksmith. He then described the weight of the safe and asked about the legality of keeping the object and its contents.
Much to his surprise, by the following day, Merli’s post had garnered the attention of hundreds of Facebook users. Many were eagerly awaiting an update about what the safe contained, while others remained skeptical about the truth behind the post. Since now there was a mass following behind the story, Merli addressed the public in a comment below his initial post, seeming surprised at the attention his alleged inquiry had gained. He then went on to excuse himself for no longer being able to reply to the numerous questions and comments he received and wrote that a locksmith would soon open it. He said the public would receive an update by Thursday or Friday.
The skeptical and eagle-eyed Facebook group members turned out to be correct! It was all a hoax.
“I mean I thought it would be funny just, like, for my own amusement, but also, if it wasn’t related to the store I wouldn’t just mess with people.”, Merli said. “Everyone loves a good safe, everyone loves a good mystery. I wanted to get them engaged.”, he continued.
Although many believed the safe was excavated from the ground on Monday, it had actually been photographed at the site a week prior in preparation for the Facebook post.
Merli never planned for his post to gather so much attention. “It had been up for 60 minutes and already had over 60 comments.” he said. “I knew the first time I looked at it an hour later that this was going to blow up.”
As of Thursday afternoon, the post in question had over 400 reactions and 300 comments.
“I like seeing the range of responses. The doubting-Thomas’s and the people with absolute certainty whose it is and what’s in it, kind of thing.”
Merli concocted the phony discovery as a way to bring attention to his new luxury pet hotel, whose franchise location is opening toward the end of the summer. This location, which is currently under construction off of Highway 170, was the site where his safe was photographed and allegedly found. The reveal of this April Fool’s prank will be posted under the Facebook thread and various other social media platforms on Friday.
Although some Facebook users began looking into the legitimacy of his claims, he still enjoyed creating the ruse.
“Whenever the idea popped into my head, just, like, that giddiness and feeling of, ‘Oh this is going to be funny. This is going to work’ and that first time seeing the post with how much attention it got,” Merli said. “Rarely does something work out as well as you thought it would.”
What’s going to happen to the now popular safe?
“I’ll always have fond memories of it and I’ll always keep it.”, Merli said. “It’ll always have special significance to me. Whether or not that’s something I want to prominently display at the store, I’m not sure yet.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
